bushed
- 1
- 2Lost or disoriented in the bush, unable to find one's way through remote, uncleared country.
The prospectors became bushed when the track petered out near the ranges.
She admitted she was thoroughly bushed once fog rolled across the scrub.
Similarlost, disoriented
Note
Here the bush is a place to lose your way, and the Australian sense pairs naturally with get. In Alex Miller's Journey to the Stone Country (2002), a speaker promises that once you know the contours of Bulgonunna "you'll never get bushed in this country." The cure is landmarks, not rest. Unlike the Canadian isolation sense, nothing here is wrong with the mind, only the bearings.
- 3Mentally unwell from prolonged isolation, especially while working at a remote mine or camp; suffering from cabin fever.
The crew worried that the new hand was going bushed after weeks of solitude at the outstation.
Cooped up at the remote claim, the prospector grew bushed and started talking to himself.
Similarstir-crazy
Note
Canadian English gives the word a darker turn: the strain of too long in the bush, at a remote mine or camp, until the mind begins to fray. It is easy to mistake for the everyday "exhausted" sense, because the sentences look alike. The clue is time and place, such as weeks up there far from town, rather than one hard day. Australian English takes the bush another way, in the "lost" meaning.
- 4Fitted with a bush, a sleeve or lining inserted into a hole to reduce friction and wear between moving parts.
The restored gearbox arrived fully bushed, with new linings at each shaft.
Engineers specified a bushed mounting to cut down vibration in the assembly.
Note
An engineer's adjective, usually fused with the material of the lining into a single hyphenated modifier: rubber-bushed swing links, a bronze-bushed bore. The bush in question is the sleeve, also called a bushing. That leaves context, not spelling, to separate it from the senses about remote country. Before a noun the compound takes its hyphen; standing alone, bushed simply means the part has its lining fitted.
Practice
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Origin
This word comes from "bush."